NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 131 
BE EER. VI. 
TO THE SAME, 
SELBORNE, May 21st, 1770 
DEAR SIR,—The severity and turbulence of last month so inter- 
rupted the regular process of summer migration, that some of the 
birds do but just begin to show themselves, and others are 
apparently thinner than usual ; asthe white-throat, the black-cap, 
the red-start, the fly-catcher. I well remember that after the very 
severe spring in the year 1739-40, summer birds of passage were 
_very scarce. They come probably hither with a south-east wind, 
or when it blows between those points ; but in that unfavourable 
year the winds blowed the whole spring and summer through from 
the opposite quarters. And yet amidst all these disadvantages two 
swallows, as I mentioned in my last, appeared this year as early as 
the eleventh of April amidst frost and snow; but they withdrew 
again for a time. 
I am not pleased to find that some people seem so little satisfied 
with Scopoli’s new publication; there is room to expect great 
things from the hands of that man, who is a good naturalist: and 
one would think that an history of the birds of so distant and 
southern a region as Carniola would be new and interesting. I 
could wish to see that work, and hope to get it sent down. Dr. 
Scopoli is physician to the wretches that work in the quicksilver 
mines of that district.* 
When you talked of keeping a reed-sparrow, and giving it seeds, 
I could not help wondering ; because the reed sparrow which I men- 
tioned to you (Passer arundinaceus minor Ratz) is a soft-billed 
bird ; and most probably migrates hence before winter ; whereas 
the bird you kept (Passer torguatus Razz) abides all the year, and 
is a thick-billed bird.| I question whether the latter be much of a 
songster ; but in this matter I want to be better informed. The former 
* See note, Letter XX XI. ; hon : 
+t Emberiza schaniclus, reed-bunting of Britsih ornithologists. 
